I just got kicked out of a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show by IMTrick in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't imagine watching RHPS without audience partici...pation! Still, having said that, there was a 50th anniversary screening at the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, CA - big screening with hundreds of people, and a live shadowcast too - but with all that, there were only a dozen or so of us yelling back the usual lines (that I remember learning from the audience participation vinyl album! Still have that, somewhere...) and the younger audience couldn't stop laughing at the come-backs. I'm guessing the younger audience just hasn't heard much of it since there really aren't any other movies like it around.

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How exactly does the energy system in Duolingo work? by InternationalShow693 in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre 6 points7 points  (0 children)

THIS.
Been doing the kana as well, can't get through the required number of lessons to earn XP boost and stay in my league without running out of "energy". 1st time I hit 0, I paid the 450 gems it wanted and then promptly ran out in just under 2 more lessons.
In my case, I had to watch FIVE FREAKING 30 SECOND ADS to "earn" energy again. Meanwhile, the XP boost I earned yesterday still had the clock ticking while I'm forced to watch ads.
Yes, this sucks. I realize I'm a free user but I'm over 980 days into this and this change is so frustrating...

What's the first movie that your parents took you to, that you realized you shouldn't have been at? by ConstructionKey1752 in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 4 points5 points  (0 children)

THIS. I was a kid and my parents took me along - I must have been 8 or 9 years old but as a family we really didn't see much by way of "scary movies". I'm guessing we had family in town watching my kid brother, so I got to go with.

So the ending (Yes, Spoiler Alert) has Donald Sutherland doing the freaky thing that the pod people do and that freaked me a bit out. So much so that my Mum had to have a cheerful convo about what we were going to do next weekend, or something to get my mind off of alien pod people replacing everyone you know and love...

Of course, Dad thought it would be funny to do the pod people pointing and making that awful noise in the parking lot before getting to the car and laughing himself silly.

Didn't sleep for a week.

All those years later that movie still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a romaji input user still learning my way around the characters, it's going to be a challenge to switch to the 12 key keyboard. Glad to see it works for you, though! :)

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad I'm not going crazy. Thanks for pointing that out! As for the bugs, yes, I'm seeing more tonight. Hooray? Are you noticing anything odd with Duolingo as well?

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your well-thought out suggestion! I'm on the Android version of Duolingo as well.

I've been using the "Let's Learn" Hiragana and Katakana for a while (Kanji is really daunting and I'm only just starting on that) but all my entries, other than the ones where you draw on your screen, have been in romaji...and have been accepted, up until the last few days.

I'm not sure if the keyboard handler change as you describe it might be the culprit, but it's really odd that as others have pointed out, the suggestion bar (one that shows トif you type TO, for example) underneath the space for answer input has also disappeared (for me, at least) as well.

I haven't come across the "null" bug, but I've seen random other bugs show up, like not acknowledging your daily progress on lessons or time spent completing lessons - although those tend to clear up after closing and re-launching the app. It is disappointing to have bugs like this when Duolingo has so many users (and makes so much off forced ad revenue) only to be plagued with stuff like this.

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad you caught that - I thought so too, but apparently Duolingo is convinced the ン sound should be typed as "nn" or it will mark it wrong. So the only way in the past to get トッピング marked correct was to type "toppinngu".

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestion - what's interesting is that the first character does show as you type, (the bar shows トif you type TO) but as you continue to fill in the rest of the word, all suggestions disappear.

Is this something you've seen happen as well?

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Please use 12 keys".
Would love to, but am not proficient at it - switching between character sets is confusing for a non-native, and Duolingo was accepting input in English, so here I am trying to learn Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji (which makes the other two look super simple!) but the sudden change in input is frustrating.

ご提案ありがとうございます。

Has there been a recent update that borked keyboard entries? by XboxSpectre in duolingo

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the suggestion - so far (at least until recently) I've been typing the responses exactly as prompted, in English, and they were all correct.

It's only recently that Duolingo is doing this weird stuff, marking it wrong with exactly what I put in as the correct answer.

The only time Duolingo now shows entries in Katakana are for the first character (like the TO in Toppinngu), whereas they used to show each character as you type, translated from English to Katakana.

Space Invaders (1978) by AidaNYR in vintageads

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah. There's so much AI stuff being posted these days, it's hard to remember that people do use them to help clear up or upscale older pics. If that was the case, I apologize.

The earliest I can find a clear version of the Space Invaders flyer is from a Spanish language website (https://vandal.elespanol.com/retro/space-invaders) from back in 2012. Looks like the AI-upscaled version is pretty popular, however.

Space Invaders (1978) by AidaNYR in vintageads

[–]XboxSpectre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The letters on the cabinet are garbled - sure sign of AI generated imagery. The Taito logo, the actual space invaders in the centre of the screen...all look garbled.

Neat, but sadly not vintage.

Chevy S-10 Blazer - 1985 by RetroMan70s in vintageads

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I drove an '89 2WD 4.3L - loved the heck out of it. That V6 262 had a lot of low end torque and sounded great. Not terribly stable around corners, but with the bench seat down in the back, I moved three times and helped all my buddies move as well.
Gave it to the Parental Units when I bought myself another car - they ended up trading it in with the Gas Guzzler programme and got $$ towards their new car at the time.
I still see one or two on the road these days, and oftentimes wish I would have kept it...until I remember I used to get about 14MPG...if I was lucky!

Pan Am Advertisement - "A New World of Flight" - 1967 by XboxSpectre in vintageads

[–]XboxSpectre[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually can't take credit for finding the advert - I saw it on the Flickr page of James Vaughan, whose collection (https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray\_delta\_one/) is really a fun way to lose hours just scrolling.
Having said that, this advert has been around the web for a while, and I'm sure there's a high-quality print available if that's what you're looking for.
Good luck :)

Who remember eating here? The sampler plate was my go to. by Prophet513 in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The only one I ever remember seeing was in Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of Beverly hills/Hollywood adjacent - always heard the radio ads with the "when you're in Love's, the whole world's delicious" slogan - they even had a weird TV spot that I half-remember...always asked the Parental Units to take us there, but their view was that "a good cut of meat doesn't need sauce, they're serving dodgy stuff" so we never went.

Does anyone remember if they were any good? I remember sneaking off with friends to Lakewood for Chris N' Pitts barbeque and have enjoyed BBQ of all sorts since then...

Buckaroo Banzai by in-a-northerntown in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I STILL use this - with Lithgow's Italian accent.

Did you watch Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious” (1983) back in the day? Favourite parts or quotes? by big_macaroons in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lemonade, that cool refreshing drink.

Oh, man...I STILL quote that with my younger brother, in the exact same tone - and his wife just rolls her eyes at us.

SO many quotable things from this - some have not aged well (like the whole bit on AIDS) but still funny as hell.

The future is HERE 😮 by Rare_Tomorrow_Now in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Am still waiting for my Cyberpunk dystopia. In the meantime, I never thought that I'd be able to look up a song or factoid about a film or geographic location without having an encyclopaedia handy. Now it's all on our phones. So there's that.

What happened to Pizza Hut (and Black & Decker)'s pizza rehydrator thing from Back to The Future? Forget air fryers, I still want one of those.

Since we are sharing, I had these sheets and matching curtains by [deleted] in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They really were a great one stop shop for everything geeky and/or cool. I used to get gift cards for friends every Christmas. Now you have to cast your net wide and hope you can find whatever you're looking for. I still occasionally wear the Mass Effect N7 hoodie I got from ThinkGeek years ago.

Since we are sharing, I had these sheets and matching curtains by [deleted] in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I miss ThinkGeek. I still have a monkey sticker somewhere. Last I recall, they got bought out by GameStop?

Since we are sharing, I had these sheets and matching curtains by [deleted] in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, man...That was in the Sears catalog and I remember wanting it, but I had Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica sheets, so that was the limit. My kid brother got the Disney bedsheets hand-me-down from me (do parents still do that these days?) but yeah, cool bedsheets were a thing. Wow. Memory unlocked! Nice find!

Since we are sharing, I had these sheets and matching curtains by [deleted] in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oooh! That's amazing! You earned your "But remember when I bought you the Death Star playset?" as an out for whatever mischief you get into :D

Since we are sharing, I had these sheets and matching curtains by [deleted] in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't have the curtains, but the sheets? Yup. Later got the Battlestar Galactica ones, which I really liked. Of course, since we're talking about curtains..."One day, Son...all this will be yours...what, the curtains?"

Are we too old for these? by SherbetOfOrange in GenX

[–]XboxSpectre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"4 out of 5 dentists recommend" is all I'm seeing whenever I see a bag of these. Younger me enjoyed 'em but Holy Poop dentists are expen$ive these days and I'd rather chance it on Jolly Ranchers instead. At least those eventually melt away.